REBIRTH
a sartorial exploration of the tiger moth
Rebirth was a collaboration between myself, Marion Parfait, a talented upcoming fashion designer, and Maria Yakhnenko, a brilliant, young art director whom I had previously worked with.
The plan was to create something weird and beautiful. Yakhnenko was fascinated by the insectile aspect of Parfait’s jewelry, resulting in images largely influenced by the White Tiger moth, a white furry creature with black spots on its wings. Once the centerpoint of our inspiration was established, the story flowed along naturally. We depicted the journey of a young moth breaking through its cocoon into the free world, finally able to shed its old skin. Fragile and poetic, eerie and beautiful. A rebirth.
The most challenging part of this editorial was that it was shot in a daylight studio. It was the first time I shot in this type of studio, and I was stressed about the fact that light would change frequently during the day in its direction, intensity and power.
Sometimes the light was dimmed by clouds, putting the photoshoot on hold for minutes until it was bright again. The weather became increasingly cloudy, forcing me to shoot at a quicker pace. When the sun would disappear, I needed to observe the direction of the clouds, so I could prepare the next frame better and be ready not to miss a second from the next sun rays.
And as sun started to disappear, the shoot became more and more exciting: the time limit forced us to put in our full 200% when it was time to shoot. Lea was adopting more various and daring poses as I was shooting with increased intensely, to be sure I was making the most of the few minutes the sun spared us. It was a wild blur of movement, with Marion (stylist), Maud (make-up & hair) and Nail (photo assistant) literally weaving around the model between shots, like some sort of weird ballet — reminiscent of busy bees around their nest.
Words & Photography by David Fitt
